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ESTABLISHED-^i^ARCH 21^1868.
Wntered at the Post-office at New York, N. Y.. as second-class matter."
AoT,. XL\'.
NEW YORK, MARCH 8, 1890.
SUPPLEMENT.
The Growth of Ghlbs in New York Oity, are soms inflicatiuns of a change; that men are beginning^toMiave
Foreigners, whcncTev they visit this country, feel iiispiretl to sive , morj leisuve and are beginning to malie better use of it, and that
the world tlie be-efit of their impressions, ev -n when they are nob j sone of us at all events have come to the conclusion that time is
solicited to do su, jiisi as first-nighters hold themselves re;]->on- not worth money, hut a Uttle more than money. Scrihiiera for
sible for some opinion on a new play, or as a physician feels !iim.5elf | March comments upon this fact: " How long ago," it asks, "was
called upon to mate
oomments on a peculiar
pathological case which
cornea under his notice.
The ordinary diagnosis
of our condition lays
most importance on the
aboun ding energy of
tiie American character.
Herbert Sjiencer has
t'ommentt'd at length
ou the eager, striviug,
anxious, nervous iaces
which you meet every¬
where on tbe street, and
in general there is a con¬
sensus of expert opinion
that we all of us are
always trying to arrive
at some deitinalion, and
that by the shortest pos¬
sible way. Not only,
however, do foreigners
invariably notice this
fact; we ourselves dwell
uijon it with pride. A
Senator from ihc State
of New Jersey, upon
his return frora Europe
last summer, declared at
a public meeting amid
great applause that we
went abroad simply "to
see ruins," thereby im¬
plying that although
Europe bad a past which
might he the object of
the casual curiosity of
our leisure days,
America might glory in
the fact that she existed
in and for the present.
Hei.ce it is that Phila¬
delphia, whose pace is
not so rapid as that of
the rest of the country,
is held up to ridicule;
and Brooklyn, which
more than New York is
pervaded by soul-satis¬
fying calm, is the un¬
happy subject of squibe
innumerable.
If you ask a recent ar¬
rival in New York, or,
indeed, even most old
inhabitants, why it is
they prefer this city ae
a place of residence
(as they generally do
prefer it) he will almost2invariably
THE GROLIER CLUB BUILDING, NLW YORK
answer that he prefers
it because of its liveliness, or to use a phrase beloved of archi¬
tects, it gives the best opportunity to see and assume "all
the modern improvements" in dress, conversation, manners,
literature, and thought. It is because this tendency has been
so blatant in the past that we are glad to notice that there
it^ thai the ' Broadway
pedestrian current, with
its'set' down town in
the morning and up
town at night, was
nearly the cnly conslant
and conspicuous social
phenomenon to be ob¬
served ill cur streets.
Its ebb and flow, too,
wore regulated by busi¬
ness hours, and what
wasnotutilitarian about
it was wholly incidental.
^ * * Kow Miejloneiir
seems at last to have
made his appearance.
The crowd is beginning
to stroll, instead of
hurrying and rushing ae
heretofore. People look
at each other, and are
even conscious of being
looked at. They specu¬
late as to the character
and occupation, the
position in life, the
means, the functions of
their ambulant neigh¬
bors. Cabs have sprung
up. Hansoms have real¬
ly hecoinean established
institution. In a word,
the out-of-doors specta¬
cle is far more inierest-
ing than it used to be,
and in natural conse¬
quence the promenading
procfssion of spectators
is becoining so, too."
Probably most of ue
have noticed these facts,
but Scribner's, so far as
we know, is the first to
have pointed tiiem out
specifically.
We speak of the
change as satisfactoiy,
and it is so from an
economic point of view,
even as it is from its
social and moral aspect.
For production, it must
be remembered, would
never exist without a.n
effective deman d or con¬
sumption ; and an in¬
crease in the efi^ective
demand must mean
eithei a pi-elimiuary in¬
crease in production oi the means to obtain what you want, or an in¬
crease and difi'ercntiation in the desire or appetite, which is the mental
presupposition of economic demand. When men take more leisure
and come to desire a wider variety and a better quality of things ;
when, in short, they occupy more time in spending and less time
in making money, they at once tend to increase the aggregate of